


Out of Sight, Out of Mind

by Paratale



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pre-Slash, but why would you, could be read as platonic, quark deserves a hug after that nasty business, takes places after the events of the tie in novel "the 34th rule", when you can suffer horribly instead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-11
Updated: 2016-08-11
Packaged: 2018-08-08 01:59:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7739080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paratale/pseuds/Paratale
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Quark has another nightmare and ends up in Odo's quarters. It turns out they could both use a hug.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Out of Sight, Out of Mind

**Author's Note:**

> The 34th Rule delivered the hurt but was a bit short on the comfort, so i filled the void, like I do
> 
> warnings: contains mild spoilers for the plot of the novel, which could probably use a couple of trigger warnings itself, but the fic doesn't go into detail.

Odo was shaped like a Terran butterfly when the door chimed. And chimed again, and again, so that Odo was forced to hurriedly take his humanoid form and disengage the lock.

"If this is some sort of noise complaint, I've been doing insects all night so--"

"He's here, Odo!" Quark was breathing heavily, brow glistening with sweat, and he was dressed in pajamas and no shoes. He must have run up the stairs connecting their habitat rings rather than taking the turbo lift, Odo thought.

"What's wrong? Who's here?" asked Odo, as Quark pushed past him and darted into Odo's quarters. Odo swiftly reengaged his lock.

"Mitra," Quark insisted, putting the central sculpture in between himself and the exit. "I saw him!"

"The colonel from Gallitep?" Quark flinched visibly when Odo named the prison. "Where did you see him?"

"In my quarters! Odo, you have to get him--"

"Quark," said Odo, keeping his voice calm and level. He had questioned witnesses in similar states of distress over the years. He just hoped that practice and time had improved his skill at it. "Do you know how he got in?"

"I don't know, I don't know!" Quark's voice was increasing in pitch, and rather than his breathing slowing down now that he was standing still, he just seemed to take in faster and shallower gulps of air.

"Did you use Rom's new locks?"

Quark nodded.

"Then there's no way he could have gotten in," said Odo firmly. "You imagined it, or had a dream or something. I can check the corridor for life signs just in case, but--"

" _No_!" Quark cried. He had started to tremble violently. "I saw him! You have to help me!"

"He can't be here," Odo repeated, baffled by Quark's refusal--or inability--to see the facts. "There's no way he could even get on to the station unnoticed, not to mention the security feeds in the habitat ring are monitored 26 hours a day--"

Quark darted forward suddenly, stopped, and then raised his wrists in a display of submission. "Please, Odo," his voice shook, "Please help me, he'll kill me--"

"Quark," said Odo again, taking an uncertain step towards his old rival. "I will help you. I am helping you."

Quark's face crumpled, and he burst into tears. Odo stared, his mind going blank; he had no framework of principles telling him how to proceed.

He found himself hesitantly extending his arms away from his sides, a long-forgotten instinct to reach for another changeling and initiate a link. Slowly, he approached Quark, who was still holding his wrists together but making tiny shuffling motions in Odo's direction. Odo peered down at Quark's face, hovered his hands around Quark's shoulders and tilted his own head at different angles, looking for clues as to what had made Quark so distraught. Then he touched Quark's wrists lightly to move them out of the placating gesture, and without warning, Quark threw his arms around Odo's middle, almost sending them both toppling over.

Odo held himself stiffly while Quark sobbed against his shoulder. Then, gradually, he lowered his own arms until they wrapped around Quark; softly at first, then tighter as something hot and aching coiled up inside of him, until he was holding on as tightly as Quark.

Which was saying something, since Quark's grip was surprisingly crushing at the moment.

Pressed as close as they were, Odo could feel almost every bone in Quark's body. He should not have been able to; as a shapeshifter he had what Humans might call a "sixth sense" for living forms, and he was used to Quark's being soft around the edges, and especially in the middle. Even through layers of clothing and skin, Odo could sense his rib cage and the sharp edge of his hips. It made him seem even smaller than usual.

"What happened?" Odo asked the air over Quark's head. What happened just now, or what happened in your quarters that scared you, or what happened after you were arrested? It was all of those questions.

"He was going to kill me," Quark muttered against his shoulder, voice muffled by Odo's body.

"In your quarters?"

"In my quarters. And at..." He stopped there, but Odo understood his meaning.

"He can't breach Deep Space Nine. After all, I'm the chief of security," Odo heard himself say.

As chief of security, he would never would have arrested Quark for remaining on the station himself. But then he had been asked to. And when he had complied, Quark had gone. Out of sight, out of mind.

Maybe if he had talked to Sisko sooner, made serious inquiries into where Quark and Rom were being held... But it had been unthinkable that anything might have happened to Quark. That would have been like one of Bajor's moons falling out of the sky--possible, maybe, but not something you plan contingencies for. You just assume the moons are always around somewhere, even when they set.

Odo had continued on assuming Quark was out there somewhere, and would, eventually, rise again. Odo had assumed this right up until he'd received the quick, haggard message from Captain Sisko that Quark and Rom, among other Ferengi prisoners, were on board the Defiant because they had escaped... from Gallitep.

Nobody had questioned Odo when he remained on the Defiant after the Bajoran corporal had disembarked--even though there was nothing for him to do there besides walk with Quark around the ship and stand outside Quark's door while he slept. "I feel much safer now just knowing you're along," Quark had said the first time they were both on the Defiant.

And that _thought_ , that Quark could quietly slip away to some place where Odo could not watch out for him; where he could never track him down again, not with all the resources at his disposal and all his skills as an investigator, had been percolating through his form ever since the truth came out. Odo sunk slowly to the floor, pulling Quark with him, and leaned back against the door. Quark curled up against his chest, and Odo bent at the knees, one on either side of Quark. Quark's trembling had subsided.

"I can't go back to my quarters," he whispered, as if Odo was just going to ask him to leave after letting him get cozy.

Odo shifted his torso into a pillow and one arm into a blanket. The other arm remained wrapped firmly around Quark's too-bony middle. Quark sighed, breath heavy with the weight of the past few months, and closed his eyes without even making a rude remark about Odo's shapeshifting.

"I don't want you to go," Odo said finally. Under normal circumstances, Odo would never have said as much. In fact, he wasn't sure why he was saying it now. Quark's failure to deride Odo's shapeshifting must have thrown him off his usual rhythm.

Quark didn't reply, his breathing finally growing slow and even. To Odo's mental dictionary of humanoid facial cues, Quark's face betrayed all the characteristic signs of sleeplessness--even more than it usually did. Odo guessed he hadn't slept through the night in a long time.

Odo's own nights hadn't been restful in a long time, for that matter. "Computer, lights off," he said quietly, and pulled Quark close against him.


End file.
